Loaded

by Robert Sabbag

"Do you think you have the balls it would take to risk your life for a million dollars?"Allen Long certainly did. Balls like a bull elephant's -- with charisma and cunning in the same large measure. But he needed to know that those around him could handle pressure. After all, they'd be violating Colombian and U.S. airspace in a dilapidated DC-3 and landing on jungle mud-tracks in bandit country. They'd have to avoid detection by America's most tooled-up law enforcement agencies and remain wired and vigilant at all times.

They'd be pioneering dope smugglers -- doing it with aplomb and panache like no one else. Their leader, the irrepressible Long, was interested in only the best, Colombian Santa Marta Gold, the Beluga caviar of marijuana. He and his merry band of smugglers were responsible for upping the quality and quality of weed smoked in North America for several halcyon years in the early '70s. And they did so in the most outrageous and remarkable fashion.

From the writer of the drug-smuggling classic Snowblind comes a true story more hair-raising, high-octane, and heart-pounding than any fictional adventure thriller, as he relates the high times and fast living of America's greatest marijuana smuggler.

Take a seat. And hang on for the ride of your life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Drugs, True Crime, Collections, Crime

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Robert Sabbag is an American author and journalist. The memoir Down Around Midnight, is about a fatal plane crash he survived in 1979. Sabbag is a member of the Authors Guild and Writers Guild of America. His film Witness Protection was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture.

Reviews

[John Marricco · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most fun and entertaining books I've read in awhile.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ha Ha, I think I knew the hero of this story.. Why isn't this a movie? It's about the first "dudes" to smuggle Columbian Gold into the USA. Insane pilots, righteous dopers, bandidos and cops--all here and an easy quick read.
I took off a star for the author's occasional flippant attitude
towards the subject as well as some cultural faux-pas ( he does NOT know his sixties rock and roll man"
quote:
"Entire Ivy League Hockey teams were playing games while tripping on acid. It's sometimes difficult to remember that there was a time when almost half of the country was zonked out of it's gourd."

[Claudia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this no stars but maybe half a star is worth it because I did get through the book but it was very boring...I think there were three chapters (or what felt like it) basically describing one flight. It was just far too technical to be exciting. I never felt connected to or rooting for the protagonist and this is a biography! I feel like I learned next to nothing about the marijuana trade of the time so I can’t even say it was worthwhile as a historical work. Too bad, I was looking forward to it. Big yawn;(

[Andrea Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of Allen Long, aspiring filmmaker turned prolific pot smuggler. Also a daily pot smoker and cocaine user, he managed to be the top smuggler of the best Colombian marijuana for years. The book focuses on his dealings with the Colombians and his American partners. Nothing too exciting happens and the writing is not impressive. The brief history lessons in the book were my favorite part.

[Ben Attwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book about a man who gets into smuggling plane loads of Cannabis from South America. Once you get through the initial excitement and interest it becomes fairly repetitive. I didn't finish it.

If this subject area interests you try Mr Nice by Howard Marks. A fascinating read.

[N.K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone who came of age in the 70’s, the drug culture was a major focal point. This was a fun read. Not quite as good as Snow Blind in my opinion but still fun and worthwhile.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story that's really well told. How someone can stumble into major crime and then continue stumbling....

[Simone Subliminalpop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ci sarebbero tutte le caratteristiche per credere di trovarsi di fronte a qualche sceneggiatura in procinto di trasformarsi in film. Invece è una storia vera, una storia anni ’70, una storia tra le Americhe (quella ricca del nord, in un senso, e quella altrettanto ricca del sud, in un altro), una storia con milioni di dollari e tonnellate di droga spostati con noncurante semplicità, una storia che rappresenta il bello, ma anche il limite, di questo libro.

[Punk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non-Fiction. Supposedly a true account of Allen Long and his adventures smuggling marijuana out of Colombia, but this was in the 1970s and all the participants were regularly fucked up on weed and coke and quaaludes, and the book was published in 2002, and Sabbag doesn't explain how he came by this information or when his interviews(?) were conducted, so, whatever. Its status as non-fiction is questionable is all I'm saying. I read it like an action-thriller, and it easily works on that level. It's written in a lofty kind of testosterone-fueled language with a noir influence, which is sometimes awesome, and sometimes eye-rollingly over the top.

Three stars. A pretty tight narrative for a biography, enjoyable enough, but not really my thing. Has an index and some color plates with photographs, one of which mysteriously contradicts its caption and even the text itself.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting either a laugh-a-minute conflagration or a really intense read. Instead, the main protagonist quickly progresses from stress-filled smuggling to the dull (with brief moments of intense life-or-death decisions) aspects of being a major supplier who relies on his network of cronies to continue his enterprise.

Thankfully, the book wasn't overly verbose (unlike my review) and I was able to finish before it became painful.

Would probably make a great movie, though. Baby boomers will love it.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could I first mention that whoever added this book to Goodreads is a supremely unfunny human being. Read the name in full: Robert Paper Sabbag sonds like Robert papers a bag. Ho, ho, I don't think. His name is Robert Sabbag, he also wrote Snowblind.

The title is also all one word, for your information, that is it is Smokescreen.

Anyway, this is another biography of a drug smuggler with the names changed to protect the guilty.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loaded: A Misadventure on the Marijuana Trail by Robert Sabbag (Little, Brown & Co. 1992) (364.1) is a book about marijuana smuggling from Columbia to the USA in the 1960's and 1970's. Sabbag's previous adventure was the book Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade and was about smuggling cocaine. The book is a grand adventure for those of us who missed the trip. My rating: 6.5/10, finished 1/23/11.

[Trawets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smoke screen by Robert Sabbag, follows Allen Long's journey from wannabe documentry film maker to marjuana smuggler to drug dealer to eventual honest citie once more.
Told in an easy laconic amoral style it's set mainly in Columbia in the late 1960's and 1970's but before the drug cartels turned the country into a killing field.
If you're prepared to suspend judgement then hop aboard for an at times hairy flight, nervous air passengers may want to skip the first chapter.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Journalism cum biography (no sniggers please). Sabbag writes about various incidents in the life of a drug smuggler with a great deal of style. His prose moves along at a rapid pace and the book is over before you know it, at least it was for me. This review would apply equally to Snowblind.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to return this to the library before finishing it, but I will get back to it. What I've read so far is excellent.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

AWESOME

[Tica Perri · Rating 4 out of 5]

have I chosen the wrong career field?

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good read.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining, interesting information on airplanes. Took 50+ pages to find a rhythm.

[Marc Rocket · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I'll read it again.

[Darrell Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read takes you on a journey..

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book lumbers along like the slow moving DC-3 used to transport the dope. These are the most boring outlaws ever committed to print.

[Tom Nolan]

paperback 6x9